The Imperial Shipyards
Imperial Creative Engineering => Dioramas => Topic started by: glorbes on January 09, 2014, 08:27:18 AM
-
Cardboard City
After seeing Empire’s Rot Gut Station diorama, I was completely blown away and inspired. I have no woodworking skills and little time, so I figured I’d try my hand at a poor man’s version of an action figure city/diorama. My approach: modular cardboard streets.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city8_zpsaf9db963.jpg)
These are made of scrap cardboard and glue with some masking tape. The idea is that they can be reconfigured in a million different ways to create different backgrounds and environments. They are great for play (my oldest has been playing with the non-stop for the past week and a half), and they are insanely fast and easy builds (it takes about an hour or two for each section, since all I’m doing is sawing cardboard with a steak knife and gluing it all together with carpenter glue).
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city1_zpsbbd344e5.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city4_zps91502680.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city3_zpsbf7c0716.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city2_zpsdec566ad.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city5_zpsae7b6c58.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city6_zpsd68093e7.jpg)
These are only a few angles I took…I’ll probably take ma few more, since I didn’t get one of the streets lined up in a row to get a long, straight street with great depth of field possibilities.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city7_zpsa81147cc.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city12_zps2a1662c1.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city11_zpsade7a0a6.jpg)
I tried to make the design work with both 4” and 6” figures to give the play and diorama photo options more flexibility. I wanted to create something that could work for multiple toy lines (like Empire’s playset)…it could be Cyberton, a spaceport city from Star Wars, or it could also work with various toy cars. I chose to spray it with a mixture of darker colors and silver overspray, though there is one building that has a blue side and a pink side to add variety to the background for photos.
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city10_zpsee2d63f8.jpg)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/Hutchi/optimus/city9_zps5eae98b6.jpg)
Its quick, cheap, and dirty, but man is it a hit in the playroom. The neat thing is that, by doing this, I can see how this type of thing can be improved or adapted, I could create some accessories to liven up the scenes, or I could knock out a few more buildings from cardboard because of how quick and easy they are to make. Lots of fun…
Let me know what you think and thanks for looking.
-
i like the idea a lot, the way you made so much out of just cardboard is awesome now i gotta idea on one of my customs im working on ;D
-
I like it!
-
this totally looks like something I would have made to play with my figures, awesome!
-
this totally looks like something I would have made to play with my figures, awesome!
That is exactly what I thought when I saw this. So cool!
I have got to go share this.
-
OMG
This is so simple and effective.
-
Great stuff Glorbes! This is the type stuff I made when I first introduced my first son to Star Wars. Thanks for sharing!
-
Very cool! I'd like to try some modular playsets like these! Got my gears turning!
-
This is too cool. Thanks for sharing.
0/
-
Great works mate, I love seeing what people use to make their displays.
Ron
-
Man I really like this this is an awesome dio
-
WOW...... :o
GREAT JOB
-
If you ever step into the world of foamcore or MDF or plywood... :D That's good stuff! A *steak knife*?? You aren't even using a utility knife or box cutter??? Wow.
-
Bruce, I've been a fan of your work for years. My goodness, this is incredible! It's so great to see you here.
-
This may have been "simple", but SO much creativity and vision went into this. It looks marvelous and could fit in with SO many "quick and dirty" environments. Works for Star Wars or even a kind of post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" style setting.
Awesome work.
If I had one criticism, I would just say this - if you could somehow cover up the cross-sections of the cardboard sheets where we can see the corrugation inside, the results would be absolutely seamless.
Still, amazing work!
-
Awesome work. Love Han Solo "creepin" on Boba.
-
Those look excellent! a very clever use of materials and a shed load of imagination. Love it!
-
And you can get cardboard boxes darn near anywhere. If you want to cover the exposed edges, maybe use some ... masking tape, I guess? I'm thinking use the thinner type - kinda center it on the raw edge and fold it down on both sides for better grip. Crud, now I've got an idea to chase later...! ;D